1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to a patient transfer device, and more specifically, to a patient transfer device comprising a cushioned chair with wheels that facilitates patient transfer in and out of a hospital clinical bed.
2. Description of Related Art
The common practice among nurses in hospitals and long-term nursing care facilities requires two or more nurses to lift a patient in and out of a hospital bed in order to provide the necessary care for one who is disabled and needs total care due to paralysis, old age, fracture, comatose condition, post-surgery or other condition which limits the patient's abilities. Regardless of existing patient transfer devices, nurses in hospitals and long-term care facilities are still manually lifting the patient in and out of bed several times during an eight-hour shift in order to provide such patient care as cleaning after bowel and bladder incontinence while in the chair (the patient must be put back in bed before any such care is attempted). In addition, moving a patient to another location or assisting the patient for therapy under a doctor's orders are some common practices which demand that a patient be transferred in and out of a hospital bed. Moreover, lifting a patient from bed to wheelchair or wheelchair to bed is one of the major causes of work-related injuries among nurses. Many times, lifting such a patient has disabled a nurse permanently. Therefore, regardless of existing transfer devices, patients and nurses continue to suffer from a lack of a proper patient transfer device.
Due to the lack of a proper patient transfer device, some patients in nursing homes sit in a wheelchair in the same position most of the day, unable to express their needs because they are confused or disabled, and their nurses are unable to easily move them back and forth from bed to chair as frequently as necessary when other patients are waiting for attention. This is especially true in working with many patients, as in most convalescent hospitals. Nurses are constantly under time pressure and they are exhausted from lifting patients.
The prior art includes several types of lifters and patient transfer devices to assist nursing care. However, these prior art devices suffer from a number of disadvantages due to lack of proper devices and a practical method for their use in a hospital environment. Thus, existing patient transfer devices are not being used as often as they should be to avoid injuries to hospital workers and to patients.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,944,056, issued Jul. 31, 1990, to Schroeder et al., discloses a complex method and apparatus for transporting a disabled patient from bed to chair and back to bed. This complex device was adapted to engage both ceiling and floor, which is not practical for use in hospitals or the nursing home environment. Although it can raise, lower and carry the patient, using a hoist mounted to the ceiling, it takes up too much space and is time consuming to operate. Moreover, it requires two separate pieces of equipment and is expensive to maintain.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,137,011, issued Jun. 16, 1964, to Fischer, also discloses a complex patient transfer device with three pieces to perform the transfer. It needs a sling on which to suspend the patient, chains to attach the sling to a hoist and a chair on which to place the patient. This method is not only time consuming, as is U.S. Pat. No. 4,944,056 above, but it results in the squeezing and bending of the patient in all directions when he or she is being lifted. Therefore, patients with certain types of fractures and after surgeries are unable to use this type of lifting device. Moreover, it is too large for a hospital's limited space availability, and it is costly to maintain both a wheelchair and a separate patient transfer device.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,060,960, issued Oct. 29, 1991, to Branscumb et al., discloses a wheelchair with a lifting device. However, the wheelchair fails to satisfy many important needs and requirements when assisting total care patients who are paralyzed, comatose, with a fracture or other geriatric complications, especially in a long-term nursing care or hospital environment.
For example, the '960 device is designed with a total of six wheels: two large wheels and four cluster wheels. The large wheels prevent the chair from being set close enough to the bed the space between the bed and the chair is similar to using a regular wheelchair. The hospital environment is not a place to remove and attach wheels or any other parts or keep them handy to use later, especially in long-term care facilities and hospitals where there are many similar wheelchairs, one per patient, sometimes two or three patients per room. It is difficult to maintain, it is inconvenient, time-consuming and requires storage space to have unattached wheels. All of these points limit the use of this chair.
Another problem arises with the '960 device because it has armrests that move to the side, away from the seat panel, but create a difficulty when transferring a total care patient.
Still another problem with the '960 device is that it is designed to move a patient from a seated position to a bedside or for use as a temporary bed facility before transferring a patient back to bed. Typically, the backrest can be removed from the wheelchair frame to permit lowering of the patient's back by releasing a Velcro strip attachment, but it fails to consider some of the difficulties and restrictions, capabilities and safety of some patients who are unable to bend, pull, stretch, strain or lift certain body parts without getting them hurt. Therefore, patients suffering with certain injuries such as to the back, hip, neck, spine and to the limbs are unable to use prior art safely. Although the attendant can transform this device to a cot/stretcher position, one person will not be able to transfer such a patient without manual lifting.
Yet another problem with the '960 device is that the footrests cannot be elevated to the same height and parallel to the surface of the bed. For most total care patients, legs need to be elevated, and it is also difficult to transfer the patient when the legs are lower than the height of the bed and the bed is not adjustable.
Yet still another problem with the '960 device is that the chair does not have sufficient cushioning to the backrest or to the footrest. It is important to keep a disabled patient free from dermal ulcers caused by poor blood circulation. Currently, in nursing homes, it is routine to keep patients up for hours, seated in a wheelchair, before they can be put back to bed. Therefore, it is important that a backrest and a footrest have proper cushioning to avoid pressure buildup, limiting the circulation in particular areas of a patient's body.
Finally, the '960 device uses a detachable seat cushion. It is difficult to use a detachable seat cushion for a patient with bowel and bladder incontinence. Due to limited space availability in nursing homes and hospitals, it is inconvenient and difficult to store detachable cushions without mixing them with cushions which belong to other patients.